The Garden of Eden as Allegory

Copilot created image for "give me an image of adam and eve being expelled from the garden"

I was raised in the Presbyterian Church (as much as I was raised in any church) and, in my naivety, loved the structure and the imagery. At some point in my ascension through the levels of church indoctrination, I was presented a Bible with a dozen or so full-page glossy illustrations of what I assume some artists considered pivotal scenes. One caught my fancy: it showed Jesus surrounded by kids and holding a lamb. That image of kindness and gentleness—and the central lesson that we are forgiven for being imperfect—are the parts of Christianity that I still value today.

But long before that amazing West Wing deconstruction of the holy book, I had already realized that I would need to either despise my own gay self or I needed to triage the good book to separate the wheat from the chaff. The contradictions and the vitriol of the Old Testament, followed by the wisdom and gentility of the New Testament and the psychedelic fever dream of the book of Revelations led me to think that the Bible has three key components:

• It is one part mythology; tales that were made up just to explain stuff. Just like Zeus and Hera. Tales like Noah. And Jonah and the whale. Maybe a little history creeps in from time to time but it is most likely embellished like the tale of Johnny Appleseed.
  

• It is one part the rules of the rabbis and priests who needed to create discipline, protect power and wealth and create obedience. Rules like "don't eat pork" and "women can't be priests" and "priests can't have sex." Some rules were just common sense and some were highly manipulative.
  

• And the third part has value. It is the rules and lessons of good and evil. We may not all be Christians but we can probably all agree that murder is bad. Most of the Ten Commandments are just an elaboration of "don't do these things unto others because you wouldn't like it if they were done unto you!"

And all of this had me thinking: why do so many religions have a version of "paradise lost" and I've developed my own Jungian theory.

It seems to me that the beauty and perfection of the "garden" mirrors our naive youth. In our youth, we are generally in a place and time when we see and focus on the subtle and verdant aspects of our lives. It is only later, when we have eaten of the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" that the scales fall from our eyes and we become aware of our nakedness; of the existence of evil; and of our mortality. We age. We become cynical. We become aware of our surroundings in much less idyllic terms.

And the further lesson is that we have a choice when we first become exposed to the fact that our garden has weeds, and snakes, and manure, and evil. We can grieve the loss. Gnash our teeth. Wail at the passing.

Or we can raise our eyes up from the foul jungle floor and we can celebrate the beauty that is still around us. We can view our glass as half full.

That, to me, is the key to happy living.